1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to the field of electronic mail. More specifically, this disclosure relates to computer-implemented methods and systems for forwarding electronic mail messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some electronic mail service providers (“email providers”) offer email message forwarding services to their subscribers. Using such a service, a subscriber can request that email messages sent to a first email address of the subscriber automatically be forwarded to a second email address of the subscriber. The second email address may correspond to an email account with a different email service provider.
Many email providers, and particularly those that provide a web-based interface for subscribers to access their accounts, derive revenue from advertising. These email providers tend to lose page views, and thus advertising revenue, by implementing an email forwarding service. Further by forwarding email messages, these email providers frequently drive traffic to the web sites of their competitors. These issues are especially problematic for free consumer email providers that monetize their email services by serving advertisements or other forms of sponsored content.
The present disclosure seeks to address at least some of these problems.